


When the Bombs Dropped

by 26EdithFinn



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-28
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:15:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23363806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/26EdithFinn/pseuds/26EdithFinn
Summary: It was an accident really. Neither her nor Draco had intended for this - for any of this to happen. And really, the situation couldn’t have been avoided. No one else would have taken Death Eater kids in, and the Wizard Community was already blown to bits. What, was she expected to just turn a blind eye to people in need? To people that didn’t have a choice? Especially when she had the power to do something?Lets start from the beginning; the war between Muggles and Wizards.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy
Comments: 5
Kudos: 41





	When the Bombs Dropped

After the civil war had ended, there was relative peace all around. Her, Harry, and Ron were trying to enjoy their summer as… normally as they could. With Harry being hounded by the press left and right, and Ron still grieving over Fred, Hermione was left alone most of the time. She thought about going to look for her parents, but she was hesitant. She had completely erased herself from their lives and had given them a brand new one. A happier, less complicated life. She couldn’t just… rip them away from that. Hermione was so confused on what to do, but she didn’t have anyone to talk to about this.

With everything going on, no one saw the war coming. Not really.

After seeing the damage of the civil war had on the muggle world, the muggle Prime Minister saw the Wizard Community as a threat. He retracted his alliance with the Wizard World and turned the military on Diagon alley. Out of almost nowhere, bomb began to drop on an unsuspecting crowd, triggering a mass panic and confusion. No one knew how to react to the attacks, because no one had ever thought muggles would attack them.

In less than twenty four hours, it was estimated that two fifths of the wizards in the United Kingdom were whipped out.

Everything went downhill from there; Harry was being looked at for answers he didn’t have, the Arthur was doing everything tho defend the muggles, and the Ministry was utter chaos. Hermione didn’t think things could get any worse. But of course they did.

Muggles all over the world were attacking their Wizard Communities. No place was safe anymore. Wizards in America, Australia, Asia…they were all being hunted and nurtured. Everyday the word population of wizards went down more and more. And when muggles learned of magical creatures, they started capturing and experimenting on them. Giants, elves, Centaurs… they were all going extinct.

In an attempt to save themselves, wizards began to go into hiding. At first, little wizard villages popped up in remote places. Then those villages turned into camps. It was in those camps that the segregation started. Between halfbloods and muggleborns. Between pureblood and muggleborns. All of the sudden they were to blame for everything. Who else would have tipped off the military? Who else would have helped the military past all their defenses?

Three months after the first bombs dropped Harry, Ron, herself, andabout ten others were all sitting around the fire. Four of them were muggleborns.

“Maybe they have a point?”

“What are you saying Ron? That you agree?”

“Well there has to be someone on the inside and -“

“And we’re obviously it?”, she sneered.

“Of course not you ‘Mione, but someone…”

A week later, Hermione and the remaining muggleborns left the camp.

They did well on their own. With Hermione as leader, they were able to gather food and supplies from abandoned markets. Some of the older kids were able to get odd jobs here and there, bringing back medicine and other small luxuries. As a precaution, Hermione believed in using magic as sparingly as they could. She didn’t know if they could be tracked down. It wasn’t even that big of a deal for them.

Six months after the bombs dropped she stopped getting word from Harry and Ron. They use to send her an owl every once in a while, telling her where they were headed and asking her to come back. She always responded that she was fine and no, she wouldn’t be back. The last owl she received was a notice on Ginny’s pregnancy, as well as Ron’s new partner. She wished them all the best.

And that was that.

A year after the bombs had dropped, she was alerted of some supplies going missing. The one in charge of them, Mage, assured her that she had put them away the night before. And yet it kept happening again and again for a whole week. The quantity was never big, but it started to pile up after a while. At first this didn’t bother her; the camp had enough to spare, and it wasn’t like they needed it at the moment. And yet it irked her. Someone was following them. Someone was stealing from them.

At this point, they had settled at the outskirts of a village in southern Germany. They had acquired three more people, making them a group of seven muggleborns. Three of them - Leo, Clair, and Nick - were old enough to work and brought back most of the supplies. Trinity had a small garden, and provided the food they needed and sold whatever there was to spare. Mage and Carter were twins who had been abandoned by another camp.

Hermione trusted all of them, and knew they wouldn’t keep supplies to themselves. If they had a problem they would’ve come to her.There wasn’t a good reason for the supplies to go missing.

On night, Hermione was woken up by the howling wind outside. Usually she would have slept through the night, but there was something about this wind. It didn’t seem natural. Before she could properly think about it, Hermione was out of her tent with her wand drawn.

They all had individual muggle tents, all arranged in a circle around the fire. The farthest one from Hermione was were they kept all of the supplies. As she got closer to the entrance of the tent, she caught a glimpse of a small dark figure rummaging around, looking through the medicine box.

“No… no… no this won’t help. Maybe this…”

“Can I help you?”, she asked, her wand pointed at the figure. The figure turned startled, and at first Hermione thought it was a wild animal. Its black hair was long and tangled, it had scrapes and bruises all over it’s face as if it had been in a fight, it was covered in mud and gods knew what else. But then she got a closer look at its face… and she would have recognized that pug nose anywhere.

“Parkinson?”

“Granger”, she snarled back.

“What are you doing here? How did you find us?”

“Oh please, like it’s hard to find you”, she slowly stood. As subtly as possible, Parkinson snuck something behind her back. But not subtly enough.

“What do you want with our supplies?”

“Oh I’m sure you’d love to know”, she made a move towards the exit, but Hermione blocked her.

“Yes, I would love to know”.

Parkinson gave a dramatic sigh, “Granger I really don’t have time for this -“

She made another attempt to exit, but Hermione blocked her again. She pointed her wand to Parkinson’s throat “I’m not letting you go until you tell me what brought you here”.

Parkinson’s eyes showed her panic, while her face stayed stoic, “Come now Granger -“. She made another attempt, but Hermione blocked her again.

This time, Parkinson’s panic showed full force, “Look Granger, it’s a grave situation. He could die at any moment -“

"Who are you talking about? Who could die?”

“Draco! He’s been running a fever for a week and if I don’t help him -“

“Wait wait wait. Draco Malfoy? He’s alive?”

Hermione couldn’t help but being surprised. When the bombs were dropped, most of the deaths were purebloods. Most had thought that muggle weapons couldn’t hurt them, so when more bombs were dropped they weren’t prepared to protect themselves. That was part of the reason why many people thought that muggleborns were the ones to help the military.

“There’s no time for your questions, Granger! If you’re not going to let me through -“

“Okay, okay. But… maybe I can help”.

“Ha, I don’t think -“

“Either let me help you or you won’t get the medicine at all”.

She didn’t know why she had made that a condition. She didn’t know why she cared. But that’s just it. Hermione cared, she wanted to help. Even though she probably shouldn’t, and she really didn’t have a reason to help, she wanted too. Hermione always wanted to help. So as quietly as she could, Hermione woke up Leo and left him in charge of camp, then took the medicine and followed Parkinson.

They didn’t walk for long. There was a small wooded area near where Hermione’s camp was, so close in fact Hermione was surprised she didn’t find it by accident.

“Strong concealment charm”, Hermione commented.

“Among other things”.

“Who cast them?”

“I did. Draco usually does them, or Blaise. But he was too weak to do them this time”.

Hermione tried to conceal her shock. She honestly didn’t think there were any purebloods still around. She wondered what that said about her. How maybe she wasn’t as enlighten as she claimed to be, maybe she was just as biased and arrogant as she had accused them to be.

When they entered the camp, Pansy led her directly to the farthest tent from the center. Sitting around the fire, Hermione recognized some faces; Blaise Zabini, Theodore Nott, Daphne Greengrass. There were alsoyounger faces among them. They must of been around eleven or twelve. They looked scared.

“Who are the kids?”, Hermione whispered.

Parkinson scuffed, “Slytherin first years”.

They kept walking.

When they entered the tent, Hermione recognized another familiar face. Astoria Greengrass sat at Malfoy’s bedside. She held his hand and gently caressed his gaunt face. It seemed like an intimate moment. Maybe they were lovers? When Greengrass saw them, she looked guarded, cautious. She held Malfoy’s hand tighter closer to her. She was protective of him. It struck a cord with Hermione, and she didn’t know why.

“Granger. Why are you here?”

“I’m here to help -“

“And why would you do that? What do you have to gain?”

“Nothing I just thought -“

“Astoria -“,

“No Parkinson. You this isn’t what Draco would want -“

“It’s not like he has much of a choice now does he”, Parkinson retorted. “You and I know he not well, and we clearly don’t know what we’re doing with muggle medicine. Our healing charms aren’t working, so this is our last resort”.

Greengrass hesitated, but sighed and moved aside. She motioned for Hermione to take her spot next to Malfoy. Without hesitating Hermione moved closer to Malfoy, taking her first look at him in over a year. And that year was not kind to him at all. He was thin, sickly thin. Paper white, like he hadn’t seen the sun in a while. He had bags under his eyes, his entire body was covered in sweat. And scars, lots and lots of scars. Both old and new. This clearly wasn’t the Draco Malfoy she remembered.

“Well. Can you help him or not?”

“How did he get so hurt?”

“We’ve been running for a while”, answered Pansy.

“Well, I can give him something for the fever… and something for the scars… has he eaten anything?”

“He just throws it back up”, Greengrass answered.

“I’ll make a broth, feed it to him slowly -“

“What are you doing here Granger?”, Malfoy croaked. His eyes were nearly closed, and yet Hermione could tell he was glaring.

“I’m here to help you”.

“I don’t need your help -“

“Clearly you do”.

She was going to say more, but Malfoy started violently coughing. It went on and on, it sounded like he was about to cough up his lungs. Hermione was just about to reach for her wand when he finally stopped.

“We need to get some fluids into him -“

“Granger -“

“Shut up Malfoy. I’m helping you whether you like it or not”.

Hermione chose to interpret his sigh as acceptance.

Hermione spent a week and a half taking care of Malfoy. She checked up on him mornings and nights, making sure he ate and took his medicine. From what she could tell, he was malnourished which is why the flu affected him more than it regularly would. Looking around Malfoy’s camp, it was obvious that everyone there didn’t have good nutrition. So with the help of Mage Carter she brought over some prepared food and other supplies. Everyone but Astoria seemed to appreciate it.

“Don’t take it personally”, commented Theo on evening, “she just hates that you were actually able to help Draco when she couldn’t”.

“I’m sure she would’ve figure something out -“

“No Granger she wouldn’t. None of us would have”.

When Malfoy had more strength, he and Hermione talked. At first it was awkward and forced. After he apologized for his behavior, and she admitted to her slight arrogance, there didn’t seem to be that much to talk about. Until he asked about her parents. All of the sudden she was breaking down next to him, unable to hold her tears or her guilt any longer. After she calmed down, he told her about how he escaped home just before to bombs dropped. How he gathered the remaining Slytherins and ran from the Ministry.

“All they saw were Death Eaters and Slytherins. They wouldn’t have believed us anyway”.

Maybe they had more in common than they thought.

After Malfoy was better, Hermione still went over to his camp to chat. She still brought food from time to time. Eventually Malfoy and his camp came to her camp for meals. At night they would sit by the fire and talk for hours.

Somewhere along the way, ‘Malfoy’ became Draco, and ‘Granger’ became ‘Mia”.

A year and six months after the bombs dropped the two camps became one. Clair, Leo, and Nick were able to find the older Slytherins jobs. More money meant more supplies, more food, more small luxuries. They were fifteen in total, so the extra money was greatly appreciated. There was more laughter all around. Draco had the most ridiculous laugh. More smiling. Draco had the most infectious smile. More warmth. Draco gave the best hugs. Yes there were still arguments; mostly between Hermione and Draco regarding money or food. But they didn’t insult each other at all. They respected each other’s opinions. Offered advise to one another from time to time.

A major fight - the only big fight they had - started when Astoria Greengrass tried to kiss Draco. Then she tried to sneak into his tent. And there was also how she sat way to close to him during meals, and how she insisted that they were ’together’.

“But we’re not together Mia! Why don’t you believe me?”

“It’s not that I don’t believe you Draco. It’s just - it bothers me that she thinks she has claim over you”.

“Why does that affect you so much? Especially when you know that couldn’t be further from the truth”.

“Because I can’t say anything against it”.

The morning after that, Astoria had tear stained cheeks and kept far away from Draco. Hermione couldn’t keep the smile off her face. She noticed Draco siting closer to her. Putting his arm around her more often. Staying up with her more often. While the others were off working, she and Draco would read together, cuddled together and stealing glances from on another.

Before Hermione knew it, Draco was waking up in her tent. On her bed. As naked as she was. Hermione didn’t complain much.

Two years after the bombs dropped, the group had enough money to buy a house for all of them. A camp wasn’t as practical to them anymore, it was too crowded and didn’t count as a permanent address. Both Draco and Hermione used the money gathered to buy a decent sized house for all of them. They decided that it would be best if they used fake names to buy the house, just in case. So, David and Susan Herbert bought a house on the outskirts of town. Some magic might have been involved.

Even though the house was big, they still shared rooms. The twins had one. Pansy, Astoria, and Daphne shared another. Blaise, Theo, Luke and Nick were all cramped in the garage. Clair and three of the younger kids took the basement. The remaining camped in the backyard. Draco and Hermione took the master suit.

While the others worked, Hermione and Mage took care of the house and garden. Draco and Carter made food and helped keep the house clean. Draco surprised everyone by being a fantastic cook.

“It’s a lot like potions. Only the stew won’t poison you or turn you to a ferret”, Draco commented while they snuggled one night.

“Have you ever thought of studying it?”

“What, like go to school?”

“Sure, I mean we have the money for it now, and the time…”

“There’s really a school just for cooking?”

A month later, Draco was enrolled in culinary school. And he did pretty well. Top of his class. He was able to get a job fairly quick after graduating. One he loved. He always came home with a huge smile on his face, a story to tell, a sigh of satisfaction. He was finally doing something he loved.

Three years after the bombs dropped, Pansy moved out with Theo. A month later Astoria moved out with Blaise. They didn’t go far, but the house did feel incredibly empty without them. They still pitched in a bit, not that they needed to with Draco’s salary.

Not long after that, Leo and Clair moved out. Nick and Mage were next. Carter took that the hardest, but in the end he moved out as well. He, Leo and Clair moved a little further away, but kept in contact through the post.

In a blink on an eye, Draco and Hermione were parents of five teens. It was then that they were enrolled in school. Hermione didn’t know why she didn’t think of it before; all kids needed an education, even if just for a little while.

Seven years after the bombs dropped, Draco opened his own restaurant. It was a huge leap. Hermione worried day and night that the business worked. Day in and day out Draco sat down at the kitchen counter and labored over taxes and wages and investments. When he would eventually cometo bed, he would snuggle into Hermione and clutch her tight. Each night he asked the same question.

“Was it a mistake?”

And overnight Hermione answered “Following your dreams could never be a mistake”.

Nine years after the bombs dropped, the youngest members of their group moved out to University. While Hermione was terrified something would happen that they would be found out as magic, Draco assured her everything would be fine.

It was just the two of them now, so they moved to a smaller home. They didn’t need that much space. Astoria and Blaise had started a family, and had moved further away. So had Pansy and Theo. Every one was apart, but they still kept in touch. They were still more connected than ever.

Eleven years after the bombs dropped, she saw Ron again. His hair was longer. He was rounder. He looked older, more rugged. As if the years hadn’t been kind to him. Next to him was a tall and thin blond. She had elongated features and a grimace on her face. She was telling him something, it looked like the were arguing. A little girl came up to them, trying to get their attention. Their daughter maybe? The girl was brushed aside by Ron, and she walked away with her head down.

Hermione walked past them without a second glance.

Two months later, Draco came back early from the restaurant. He told her how Harry Potter and his wife though a fit when they found out who the owner was. The police had to get them involved. Draco had to give a statement, basically saying he had never seen them in his life.

That evening, Harry appeared on their front door.

“How did you find were we live?”

“I followed Malfoy here. Never did I imagine to find you here Granger”.

“My name is Susan Herbert. Please use it”.

“Why are you using that name? Is Malfoy -“

“Stop. Just stop. ‘David’ and I are fine. We’re perfect in fact. You made it clear that I wasn’t wanted around, so don’t come back here expecting me to do what you say”.

“Hermione -“

“It’s Susan. Now, if you would kindly leave? I rather not call the police”.

She closed the door. Draco came behind her and held her tight. They both stayed like that for a while, swaying in place. She was happy. They were happy. Together. And that’s the way it would stay.

**Author's Note:**

> So this work has been rolling around in my mind for a long time. It all started when I couldn't find another work that for the life of me I can not remember its name.
> 
> Essentially, Draco and Hermione live in hiding in Australia after the Muggles attack. if you know what I'm talking about please let me know because it is driving me crazy!
> 
> I hope that everyone if safe out there. Theses are confusing times and I wish all of you out there the best.


End file.
